Leave it to Hollywood, just when you think nothing good is coming out, all of a sudden nothing good really doesn’t come out. Hopefully you can find a beach ball or some dirty playing cards or something to keep you busy while you’re in the theater because trust me, you won’t be there for the movies. Let’s take a look under the hood.

In Theaters

Anger Management
Is there any specific reason they give Adam Sandler a different name for every movie he’s in? It must have something to do with keeping the writers happy, like they’d feel too constrained if they had to just give up the ghost and call his “character” Adam Sandler every time. It certainly doesn’t help Sandler’s fans, who are constantly turning to each other during his movies and having conversations like:

“Wait a minute, why do they keep calling Adam Sandler ‘Barry’?”

“I don’t know dude, watch and find out.”

This latest flick is more of the same, though Sandler may have finally met his match in always-acting-the-same virtuoso Jack Nicholson. Strangely enough, Nicholson’s character in the film isn’t named Jack either, so I guess he’s still harboring the same delusions after all these years.

Thankfully Jack at least provides us visual clues so we know we’re not watching Sophie’s Choice, because in this movie he wears a different hat. I think more actors should try this; George Clooney could really expand his range if he’d put on a sombrero every once in a while.

As for the film itself, it’s your standard “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy leaves giant dildo formed out of cheetos on girl’s doorstep at night” picture, spiced up by a little rhyming dialogue. You could do worse, especially if you think Jamie Kennedy is funny.

Bulletproof Monkey
Looks like that voodoo priestess I paid to keep Sean William Scott out of any more movies has failed me yet again. Here he plays the annoying little monkey of the title, who steals Chow Yun-Fat’s Asian accent, making it tough for him to find work in any half-assed knockoffs of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The resulting film is sort of like a cross between Kangaroo Jack and having your girlfriend leave you for Bob Denver. It’s better than Iron Monkey, the Beastie Boys’ Brass Monkey and Pauley Shore’s Ass Monkey, but that’s kind of like saying getting kicked in the face is better than getting kicked in the taint.

Holes
Though they have probably the worst name ever for a teenage girl group (despite stiff competition from B*Witched and Gynotopia), Holes have always charmed with their angst-free songs about being young and spoiled. Was that enough to justify a feature-length film? Of course not, but nobody really believed the caning of the Spice Girls in Singapore was really going to be the deterrent that kept some soulless hack trying to pull this crap again. The supporting cast of John “Must’ve Had Sex with Some Kind of Goddess to Produce Angelina Jolie” Voight and Segourney “No Matter How You Spell My Name It Still Doesn’t Look Right” Weaver keep the proceedings mildly respectable while Holes travels around the world trying to discover why some people are ugly. If this movie were a beverage, it would be a can full of air, but it’s not like the target audience has ever heard of thinking.

House of 1000 Islands
Rob Zombie’s obviously a big fan of salad dressing, and it shows in this reverent homage to many of the masters of the medium. Throughout the film you’ll see people eating salads with blue cheese, Italian vinaigrette, honey mustard, all the big names. There’s kind of a tacked-on horror angle to the picture where the guy running the restaurant is really making the dressing out of kidnapped cheerleaders and surplus members of boy bands, but I wouldn’t get too wrapped up in that side of the film. If you like watching people eat salad, you’ll like this movie.

Identity
Look, unless David Lynch in involved, I just don’t accept “the Hamburgler did it” as the resolution to any film. Sorry. I was willing to let the film try again to get it right, but it just ended instead, so piss on this movie. Yeah, sure, I’ll stare at John Cusack for two hours, because I’m in a good mood and I already bought a soda. I’ll even buy Ray Liotta in a role where he doesn’t have a coke problem, sure. But the whole strangers in a room/lights go out/a woman screams/lights go up and--somebody fucked the cat!--angle is just tired. Been done too many times, and it was done better the last time I played Clue. They should have blamed it all on the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. Nobody ever sees that one coming.

And that’s all we’ve go to report as of right now. Word on the street is that there are several more crappy movies in production as… we… speak… so we’ll have the latest on those as soon as they crap themselves into the theater. If you’re like me, you hope to develop a drinking problem before then, to ease the pain. Best of luck to both of us. Bottoms up America!

April 14, 2003
Bend it Like Beck’s Ham, The Core, Head of State, A Man Apartment, Phone Booth

March 31, 2003
Ass! Ass! National Tango!, Bringing Down the House, Dreamcatcher, The Hunted, Piglet’s Big Movement, Tears of the Sun, Willard

2003 Oscars Special!
Oscar fever is upon us, ladies and gentlemen, and fear not: that puss-like discharge is a completely normal symptom.

March 3, 2003
Dark Blue, Old School, Spider, Studyhall Junkies, The Time-Life Christmas of David Gale

February 17, 2003
Cherdevil, How to Lose a Gut in 10 Days, The Jungle Book 2

February 3, 2003
Final Destination 2, The Recut, Shanghai Knights

January 20, 2003
Darkness Falls, A Guy Thing, Kangaroo Jack, The Hours, National Security

January 6, 2003
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Just Married Ashton Kutcher, Love Liza, The Pianist

December 23, 2002
25th Hour, Catch Me if You Can, Gays of New York, Lords of the Ring: The Out-of-Towners, Max

December 9, 2002
About Shit, Cannibalize That, The Hot Chick, Maid in Manhattan, Star Trek: Eminemisis

November 25, 2002
Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nuts, Diet Another Day, Extreme P.O.S., The Friday After Next Friday, Wes Craven Presents: They...

November 11, 2002
8 Miles of M&Ms, The Santa Clause 2, Punch-Drunk Love, I Spy, Femme Fatale

October 28, 2002
Auto Focus, Formula 51, Ghost Ship, Jackass: The Movie, The Truth About Charlie, Waking Up in Reno With Billy Bob Thornton